


Can You Read the Signs

by iaminarage



Series: Make Me Happy 'verse [3]
Category: Glee
Genre: Canon Compliant through season 4, Do not read if you have not read through Chapter 17 of Make Me Happy, First Meeting, If you want to read this because Trent is awesome, M/M, Mentions of Sebastian/OMC, This is a backstory fic for the multichapter Kurtbastian fic Make Me Happy, Trans Male Character, but if you do plan to read Make Me Happy, go for it, grad school
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-16
Updated: 2014-10-16
Packaged: 2018-02-21 09:03:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2462510
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iaminarage/pseuds/iaminarage
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Once upon a time, there was an innocent, unsuspecting Yale PhD student—ow!” Alex was interrupted by Trent whacking him on the arm. “Okay fine. We met during the first few months of my PhD. I’d basically moved into the library and kept accidentally bumping into Trent there.” </p>
<p>Or: The Story of how Trent Nixon and Alex Donahue became the couple everyone was rooting for.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Can You Read the Signs

**Author's Note:**

> As mentioned in the tags, if you have no plans to read Make Me Happy and just want to read a fic about Trent and my OC, you’re also welcome to (although I suspect there won’t be many of you). For the rest of you (aka those reading or planning to read Make Me Happy), please don’t read this until after you’ve read Chapter 17, but it takes place in the fall of 2015. You don’t have to read this fic if you don’t want to, but I totally think you should. All of Make Me Happy will still make sense either way. 
> 
> The title comes from “On the Other Side” by Augustana.
> 
> Thanks as always to loveinisolation for the insane number of words she has beta-ed in MMH. I also owe extra special massive thanks to Januarium for all of her help on this fic, for being a willing participant in my many (many, many) conversations about Trent and Alex, and for helping me with pretty much all of my Alex related headcanon things.

The first time that Alex Donahue spoke to Trent Nixon, he didn't even look up from his notes. He'd only been a grad student for a month, and he was already buried in work. On that particular afternoon, he was sitting at his favorite table in the library with journal articles spread out all over.

“Is this seat taken?” someone said from the other side of Alex's table.

Alex just shook his head and said, “Nope. Go for it,” while punching a couple of numbers into his calculator.

He didn't even think about the person sitting across from him again until an hour and a half later when he ran out of water. As Alex stood up to go to the water fountain, he finally got a good look at the boy sitting across from him, chewing on a highlighter and nodding his head a bit in time to whatever was playing on his iPod.

The boy was definitely interesting, but Alex didn’t have any time for interesting.

An influx of freshman homeworks to grade the next morning ensured that he didn't think about the boy again for several days.

The second time that Alex spoke to Trent, he made eye contact and smiled.

It was a few days later, and this time Alex had his grading spread out in front of him when he was once again interrupted. “Mind if I join you?”

“I don’t mind,” Alex said, glancing up distractedly. When he realized who was speaking to him, he actually stopped grading for a few minutes to watch the boy pull his laptop out of his bag and set it up. Once the boy was settled, Alex said, “I hope you don’t regret it. I have a tendency to swear at my grading.”

“That bad, huh?”

Alex smiled ruefully. “I like to console myself by imagining that they’re all legacies.”

“Either that or they’ve all discovered the wonders of beer,” the other boy replied with a laugh.

Alex snorted and nodded, then looked back down at his work. He spent the next hour trying to convince himself that his companion’s laugh hadn’t been _that_ adorable and that he didn’t need to spend his time thinking of ways to make him laugh again.

The third time was the next day. The boy didn’t say anything this time: just leaned on the chair across from Alex until Alex noticed him, looked up, and smiled. Then the boy pulled out the chair and sat down. “I’m Trent, by the way.”

“I’m Alex,” he replied, straightening out his books to make enough room for Trent. Alex was glad that Trent had introduced himself. It was always good to have a name for the things you weren’t thinking about.

For the next two weeks, Alex saw Trent every other day or so, and each time Trent sat at his table. Since Alex was not thinking about Trent, he did not wonder why it was that Trent never wanted to sit at his own table or with other friends. He was perfectly happy with the situation as it was.

One Thursday, three weeks after the first time Trent had sat with him, the routine was turned on its head. Alex walked into the library and found Trent already occupying a table, although it wasn't the usual one. Trent was wearing sweatpants and a t-shirt, which was the first clue that something was wrong. He sat hunched at the table with his forehead resting in one hand as he stared at a book in front of him and chewed on yet another pen. The exhaustion radiating off of him was obvious, which made Alex want nothing so much as to take care of him, although he tried to stamp that particular instinct down.

Alex walked over to Trent’s table and leaned on the edge of it, pressing the heels of his hands into the desk next to Trent’s text book. “Are you okay?” he asked. “You look awful.”

Trent tilted his head to the side so that he was looking at Alex and narrowed his eyes. “You’re not supposed to comment on it, you know. Didn’t your mother teach you any manners?”

“My mother is a Women’s Studies professor,” Alex answered with a smile. “She taught me about privilege. And colonialism. But really, are you okay?”

“I had to pull an all-nighter to finish an essay last night,” he explained, rolling his eyes.  ”Apparently it shows.”

“Well you are wearing sweatpants,” Alex pointed out helpfully.

Trent glanced down at his legs and shrugged. “See, now that's a surprise. No wonder you said I looked awful.”

Alex crossed his arms and glared at Trent. “You know that's not how I meant it. You should go home and get some sleep.”

“I can't,” Trent said, gesturing down at the text books in front of him. “Statistics.”

Without really thinking about it, Alex reached over and rested a hand on Trent's shoulder. It was only when Trent gave him a shocked look that he realized that it was the first time they'd ever touched. Alex proceeded resolutely with his policy of not thinking about that kind of thing and said, “Trent, is your statistics homework going to blow up before tomorrow?”

Trent shook his head without taking his eyes off Alex. “Then go home and sleep,” Alex said, and dropped his hand and walked around the table so he could sit and start pulling work out of his bag.

“You're awfully bossy for someone who doesn't even know my last name,” Trent said with a huff, but he also started shoving his books back in his bag.

“First of all, it's Nixon. It says so on your calculator,” Alex said, grinning. “Second of all, I'm bossy for anyone, so you might as well get used to it.”

“I'll take it under consideration,” Trent replied, swinging his backpack onto his back. “See you tomorrow.”

When Alex didn't see Trent the next day, he was a little disappointed but not particularly worried. It was easy enough to blow off hanging out in the library on a Friday afternoon.

By Tuesday, he was concerned. He couldn't help but wonder if he'd gotten it wrong the last time they'd spoken. Of course, it wasn’t that he missed Trent. It was just that he really liked routine.

“Are you pining?” Alex’s friend Marshall asked, plopping down into what Alex had possibly started to think of as Trent’s seat.

“Pining?” Alex asked, confused.

Marshall rolled his eyes. “For the twelve year old who usually sits here and looks at you like you invented sex?”

Alex choked on a sip of coffee and started coughing. Alex and Marshall had been friends since high school and had both ended up at Yale for their PhDs, so Alex knew very well that Marshall had a way with words. But that was a little much, even for him. “Oh my god, Marshall. He fucking does not … and his name is Trent.”

“Deny it all you want, my dear, but that child is having _sinful_ thoughts about you. Which he doesn’t actually look old enough to have.”

“I’m pretty sure the Yale library system doesn’t allow unaccompanied twelve year olds to just hang around,” Alex replied, trying to distract Marshall from whatever his point was.

“In that case, you should ask him out and put both of you out of your misery,” Marshall replied, shooting Alex a mischievous grin.

It really shouldn’t have come as a shock that Marshall was trying to get him into a relationship. He’d appointed himself Alex’s wingman years ago and had never taken his duties lightly. The problem was that Alex really didn’t need him right now. “I’m not asking him out! I’m a grad student; I’m too busy for dating.”

Marshall gave him an incredulous look. “Are you really planning on being celibate for the next five to six _years_?”

Alex hadn’t exactly thought of it that way when he’d said he was too busy for a relationship. He could argue that being single didn’t mean being celibate, but Marshall knew very well that he wasn’t the casual sex type. He was the one who’d officially labeled Alex a serial monogamist. “Could work. I’m fantastic at masturbation.”

“Yeah, well, put that on your CV,” Marshall said with a snort. “But since you bring it up, exactly how much of your fantastic masturbation time over the last few weeks has involved thinking about Trent?”

“I hate you.” Alex dropped his head to the table with an audible thunk and refused to look back up at Marshall, partially because he wasn’t sure he could make eye contact without blushing. But so what if Alex was attracted to Trent? Just because you occasionally picture someone naked, doesn’t mean it’s a good idea to date them. Although it did get hard to remember all of the good reasons he wasn’t dating right now every time Trent smiled at him.

After a minute, Alex felt Marshall flick the top of his head. “You don’t have to look at me, but you do have to listen. I realize that you decided that you didn’t have time for a relationship and now you feel the need to cling to that decision like it’s the last life boat on the Titanic. But maybe this time you should try _not_ shooting yourself in the foot by being the planet’s most stubborn idiot, and instead ask yourself what you really want.” Then Marshall ruffled Alex’s hair and walked away.

The trouble with Marshall was that he had a way of getting inside of Alex’s head and forcing him to think about things that he was trying to avoid. Like what he really wanted.

By the time Alex was settled in the library on Wednesday, he had decided that the problem wasn’t that he didn’t know what he wanted; it was that he didn’t know if he could have everything he wanted at once.

Alex had almost stopped worrying about the whole thing when Trent dropped into the seat across from him and smiled. “Where did you go?” Alex asked, completely failing to sound cool.

“Turns out sending me home was the right idea,” Trent said. “If it was possible to die of a cold, I would have this weekend. I’d have let you know I wasn’t going to be here, but I didn’t know if you’d care.”

Trent shook his head at himself and tried to laugh the comment off, but Alex knew he was serious. Trent had clearly picked up on the ambivalent vibe that Alex had been trying to give off, which made Alex feel like an asshole because he wasn’t actually ambivalent at all.

Alex looked up at Trent, who was biting his lip nervously and waiting for Alex to say something, and made a decision. He reached out, pulled Trent’s notebook towards him, and wrote neatly in the top corner of the page. “You couldn’t have told me anyways,” Alex said, pushing the paper back towards Trent. “You didn’t even have my number.”

Trent’s eyes flicked down to the paper and then back up at Alex in surprise, but all he said was, “You make a good point.”

“Trent, do you … shit.” Alex’s phone started beeping quietly. “That’s my ‘go the fuck to class’ alarm. But would you want to grab a drink sometime?”

“Oh, I actually can’t,” Trent answered, looking a bit nervous. Alex definitely hadn’t been expecting that answer, and he couldn’t help but wonder how he’d misread Trent’s signals so badly. Trent must have realized where Alex’s thoughts were going because he reached out and grabbed Alex’s hand across the table. “I’d like to go out with you, if that’s what you’re asking. I just can’t buy alcohol.”

Alex had to laugh when he understood what Trent was saying. Score another one for Marshall. “Trent, exactly how old _are_ you?”

“Nineteen,” Trent said, not looking at Alex. “But I’ll be twenty next month?”

“I’m twenty two,” Alex replied, giving Trent’s hand a squeeze. “Close enough, right?”

Trent grinned and squeezed back. “Definitely close enough.”

* * *

 

The first time Trent Nixon saw Alex Donahue, he had definitely noticed. He'd just printed off an entire tree's worth of articles from a genetics journal and was looking for a place to sit and read them when someone caught his eye.

The boy in question was sitting alone at a table and looked more than a bit stressed. His light brown hair was mussed in a way that made it clear he'd been running his hands through it, and he was holding his glasses in one hand while he rubbed his temples with long fingers. Trent couldn't have said what drew him to this guy he didn't even know. Truthfully, he wasn't even Trent's usual type; his tight tan pants, even tighter striped shirt, and red converse screamed hipster. Although, if Trent were to be honest, the fact that this guy didn't look anything like his ex was definitely part of the attraction.

After a week of trying to ignore the guy entirely, and failing to the point where Trent felt like a bit of a creeper for looking at him too often, he finally worked himself up to asking if the seat across from the boy was taken.

As soon as the boy left, Trent texted Sebastian.

To Sebastian:  
I've definitely just met the cutest guy ever. I'm going to need him to be my boyfriend.

To Sebastian:  
We will eventually get married and settle in a classy area of New England.

To Sebastian:  
I'm thinking two kids and a beagle.

From Sebastian:  
This is why I can't take you anywhere. Chill the fuck out, Romeo. Does this dude even have a name?

To Sebastian:  
Well, I'm sure he DOES.

From Sebastian:  
Please explain to me again why we're friends.

The trouble was that, since Sebastian was willing to listen, Trent actually did tell him about his love life pretty often. It was almost always a mistake. Sebastian had decided that the two of them were the kind of friends who overshared about sex, and Trent really should have learned not to encourage him.

By the time Trent and Alex had been seeing each other for two months, Trent was definitely regretting letting Sebastian believe anything of the sort.

“So, did you manage to get Alex to touch your dick yet?” Sebastian asked as soon as Trent answered the phone.

For a moment, Trent seriously considered hanging up on Sebastian, but he knew Sebastian would just call him back until he picked up. “Why on earth do you think I'm going to discuss this with you?”

“Because I'm your best friend?” Sebastian pointed out helpfully.

Trent flopped back on his bed and stared at the ceiling. “Sometimes I'm terrified that might be true.”

“Okay, but did you fuck or not?”

“You have a boyfriend now, Sebastian. Aren't you supposed to be less …well, you?” Trent asked. It was possible that he was getting a migraine. He'd never actually had a migraine, but he had to imagine this was what it felt like.

Sebastian snorted. “I'm in a relationship, not a convent. Much like most couples, Tad and I have sex. Probably the most sex I've had in my life, actually.”

“I'm painfully aware, thank you,” Trent said with a sigh. Sebastian gave him way too much information on this particular topic. “But it's not just sex, is it?”

For a second, Sebastian was quiet. “No, it's not just sex,” he said, his voice soft.

“Okay then,” Trent replied.

“So you're saying you still haven't done it?” Sebastian asked.

“I hate you.”

“You know, I've heard that if you go long enough, you get your virginity back,” Sebastian added.

Trent had officially had enough. “Yeah, well, I'm not sure I don't want it back,” he said, sitting up angrily.

Sebastian went dead silent on the other end of the line. “Fuck, Trent. I'm sorry.”

These days, it was almost fascinating to watch Sebastian switch gears from the snarky, sarcastic, thoughtless version of Sebastian to the more genuine version. Trent had to admit he’d been seeing that side of Sebastian more often since Tad had come along.

One of the biggest reasons that Trent and Sebastian had become as close as they were was the fact that over the last few years Trent had come to trust that hurting him was one of the last things Sebastian wanted to do. Sometimes he still did it anyways, but it was always an accident.

“It's okay,” Trent said, relaxing a bit. He knew that there was no way that Sebastian had been thinking about Chris, Trent's ex-boyfriend, when he said that. Sebastian hated Chris possibly more than Trent did.

“Not really, but I'll take it,” Sebastian said with a laugh. Then, with no preamble, he changed the topic back to Alex. “Are you falling for him?”

“Of course not. It's only been two months,” Trent replied, the denial automatic.

“I know,” Sebastian said, and then he paused. “But are you?”

Trent took a deep breath. “It's sort of hard not to.”

* * *

 

Unsurprisingly, dinner and a movie at Alex's apartment the next night turned into dinner and making out with a movie on in the background. At some point, Alex ended up straddling Trent's lap and running his hands into Trent's hair. Without even really thinking about it, Trent let his hands slide from where they rested on Alex's hips up under two layers of shirts and over the bare skin of Alex's back.

When Trent's ran his thumbs over Alex's ribs, Alex startled and stopped kissing him. “Hold on; we need to stop,” Alex said, leaning back from Trent a bit and pressing his hands to Trent's shoulders.

“Sorry!” Trent said and he pulled his hands away from Alex immediately, feeling like an ass for doing things without asking.

“No, no, no,” Alex replied, looking surprised. He grabbed Trent's hands from where they were resting at Trent's side. Trent hadn't been able to figure out where he could put his hands without touching Alex when they were sitting in that position. “You didn't do anything I didn't want you to do. I just forget sometimes …”

“Forget?” Trent asked.

Alex dropped one of Trent's hands to run his own through his hair, messing it up even more than Trent already had. “It's just that there's something I have to tell you before we do anything else.”

For a minute, Trent pondered that. The truth was that he had a pretty good idea of what Alex needed to tell him. It never would have occurred to him at all if it weren't for the fact that he knew that Alex's particular research area of interest had to do with trans kids. Even then, Trent wouldn't have thought anything of it except for the addition of Alex putting on the breaks. The combination did sort of add up to an explanation, but Trent knew it wasn't his place to say anything until Alex did.

Finally, he grinned at Alex and said, “Are you a werewolf?”

“What?” Alex said, shocked. “You dork. No, I promise I'm not a werewolf.”

Then Alex pulled himself off of Trent and walked towards the kitchen. Trent took the cue to follow him and leaned his back against the counter as Alex rifled through his fridge. “Are you a vampire? Because that one might honestly be a deal breaker,” Trent said.

Alex looked up from the fridge just long enough to roll his eyes. “Do you want a drink?” he asked, pulling out a bottle of wine.

“Are you supplying alcohol to minors now?” Trent asked, his tone a little flirty.

“Just the one,” Alex answered, and ran the backs of his fingers down Trent's arm on the way to grab two wine glasses out of the cupboard.

Trent caught his breath at the touch and had to take a moment before he could say, “I'm in as long as it's sweet.”

“Always,” Alex replied, handing Trent a glass. Then he spent the next few minutes quietly pacing his kitchen and nursing his drink. Trent had to force himself to just let Alex work up to saying what he needed to say without trying to help.

Finally Alex stopped in front of him. “It's just ... I'm not going to hate you if you leave, okay? I really fucking hope you don't, but I'll understand.”

“Alex ...” Trent said, trying to think of anything he could say that would help.

“Don't worry about it,” Alex said, waving his hands a bit too much and nearly spilling his wine.

Trent reached out and gently pulled the glass away from Alex before any damage could be done and set it on the counter behind him. “I'm sorry,” Alex said, running his now-empty hand through his hair again. “It's not normally this hard for me to tell people. It's not really that big of a secret. It's just that this—you and me—it feels like it matters.” Alex paused and dropped his gaze to somewhere around Trent’s feet. When he continued, he sounded hesitant. “I know it's only been two months, but I think maybe it's really important.”

Despite Alex's nervous energy, Trent couldn't help but smile at the admission that Alex was feeling the same way he was about their relationship. “I think so, too,” he said, reaching out and taking Alex's hand.

Alex looked at their joined hands and took a deep breath before meeting Trent's eyes steadily. “Okay. I'm trans,” he said. And then, apparently thinking more clarification was needed, he added, “Assigned female at birth.”

Despite the fact that he'd suspected that was what Alex was going to tell him, Trent hadn't managed to figure out what he was going to say in response. He knew what he felt, but the words were hard. Instead of saying anything, he pulled Alex closer by their joined hands and kissed him gently.

Alex kissed him back, but after a few seconds he broke the kiss so that he could wrap both arms around Trent's neck and hug him as tightly as he could. It was that, more than anything else, that helped Trent understand exactly how afraid Alex had been of Trent walking away. Trent held him close until Alex was ready to let go.

Finally Alex's hold on his neck loosened, and he pulled back far enough that Trent could actually look at him. “Alex,” Trent started and then stopped to take his own deep breath before he continued. “I want to be with you. I may not always know the right thing to say or do, but if you're willing to put up with trying to help me figure everything out, then I'm not going anywhere.”

“I think I can live with that,” Alex said, his voice a bit teasing, but he was betrayed by the few tears that ran down his cheeks. He brushed them away with the back of his hand and then pulled Trent in for another kiss.

Trent had no idea how long they stood in Alex’s kitchen kissing, but the next time he caught sight of the clock he realized that it was after midnight. “I should go,” he said as Alex attempted to pull him back in. “You have to teach at 8am tomorrow.”

Alex groaned and dropped his head to Trent’s shoulder. “Let’s not and say we did on the 8am thing.”

“Why on earth did you agree to take the 8am section on Friday?” Trent asked as he headed for the door to grab his coat.

“I thought it would force me to get up and get to work early on Fridays,” Alex replied, pulling his shoes on.

Trent paused in the middle of buttoning his coat. “Where are you going?”

“To take you home?” Alex replied.

“Isn’t the whole point of my leaving that you need to go to bed?” Trent said, crossing his arms.

“I don’t need to go to sleep so badly that I’m going to let you walk a mile back to your dorm alone. It’ll only take a couple of minutes if I drive you.”

Technically, Alex was right about that. It was a pretty irritating walk and a very short drive, but Trent knew that if Alex drove him home it would turn into talking in the car and then making out in the car, which would mean Alex wouldn’t go to bed for at least another hour. “I’m not letting you drive me.”

“Well I’m not going to bed while you walk home, so we seem to have a stalemate,” Alex replied, mimicking Trent’s position by crossing his own arms.

They stared at each other for a minute before they both started laughing. When they finally stopped, Alex said, “We could compromise and you could stay.”

“Really?” Trent asked, not entirely sure what Alex was asking.

“I mean, not _that_ ,” Alex said with a nervous laugh. “Well, probably eventually that. If you want to. But I just meant that you could sleep here. You wouldn't have to leave when I left or anything. No one really wants to get up at seven in the morning. But I’d be back around ten, and then we could talk more if you want to? Or—”

Trent cut Alex’s nervous rambling off with a kiss. “You don’t have to convince me; I’ll stay.”

* * *

 

By dinner time on Friday, Trent still hadn’t left Alex’s apartment. He’d still been mostly asleep when Alex had come home from his class and crawled back into bed next to him for a nap. It was the kind of comfortable and familiar that Trent thought he could get used to.

Alex mostly blew off his homework for the rest of the day so the two of them could spend it together. Trent didn’t even look at his phone until he was hanging around the kitchen watching Alex make dinner. When he did finally check it, he realized that he had eight texts and three missed calls from Sebastian. “Oh, fuck,” he said, sighing.

“What’s up?” Alex asked, looking up from the recipe he was reading.

“I probably have to call Sebastian back to assure him that I’m not dead,” Trent explained. Alex and Sebastian had met over Christmas when Alex had driven down from where his family lived in Ann Arbor to visit Trent.

“I don’t mind,” Alex said, misinterpreting Trent’s hesitance.

Trent wondered if there was any explanation for Sebastian that would actually make sense and not sound completely ridiculous. Considering the fact that everything about Sebastian was completely ridiculous, there probably wasn’t. “Sebastian’s sort of … decided that we’re the kind of friends who discuss our sex lives in detail. I didn’t agree to this, but I think he’s winning anyways. So he’s spent the last two months asking me if we’re having sex yet, although he uses less polite terms.”

Alex laughed and smiled at him. “Despite having only a few hours of exposure to Sebastian, I still think that sounds exactly like what he’d do. I’m sure as hell not going to make you call him, but it’s fine for you to tell him about me if that’s what’s bothering you.”

“Really?” Trent asked. He’d sort of expected to be asked not to tell people that Alex was trans. It wasn’t really any of their business anyways.

“Yeah, it’s not that big of a secret,” Alex replied with a shrug. “My friends all know, and so does a lot of my cohort. I’m not about to take out an ad in the paper, but if you trust him that’s good enough for me.”

“Okay, I guess I’ll just …” Trent pointed down the hallway to indicate that he was going to go make the call from Alex’s room.

As he started down the hallway, he heard Alex shout after him. “It’s not like you were helping anyways!”

“You know, when I told you to get laid, I didn’t mean that you should disappear completely and force me to contemplate all the different ways you could have died,” Sebastian said grumpily as soon as he answered the phone. “You did at least have sex, right? You didn’t put me through all of this for nothing?”

Trent couldn’t help but grin a bit at the memory. “Yeah, we did.”

Sebastian clapped loudly enough for Trent to hear it through the phone. “So, what was the hold up?”

“There was something he had to tell me first,” Trent explained. “And he wasn’t ready yet.”

“Is he a werewolf?”

“No, I checked. He’s not a vampire, either,” Trent replied. Then he stood up and started making Alex’s bed, just to give himself something to do. After a minute, he figured out that Sebastian was waiting for Trent to tell him what had actually happened. “Alex is trans,” he said, trying to sound casual.

“Oh,” Sebastian said. “ _Oh_. Yeah, I guess that could be something you’d need to know in advance.”

Trent laughed. “Yeah, I think it’s a more comfortable conversation for everyone if you have it before you get naked.”

“I’m guessing that you decided you were okay with that, considering that you had sex and all,” Sebastian replied a little suggestively and then waited a few seconds before continuing. “How was it?”

Despite the fact that Sebastian often got into unnecessarily graphic detail when talking about his own sex life, Trent usually tried to get away with not giving more than basic information. “It was definitely different,” he said, pulling the sheet he was holding tight across the top of the bed and tucking it in on the side. “Different, but really good, though. I mean, I don’t know. It was me and Alex, which kind of means it had to be amazing.”

“You are so gone,” Sebastian said with a snort. “I’ll be buying you his and his towels by your next birthday. But everyone _enjoyed themselves_?”

Trent rolled his eyes. “Oh, ew. Come on Sebastian!”

“Hey, I’m just looking out for you. I don’t want you to turn out to be selfish in bed. Remember that pleasing your partner—”

“I need you to stop talking,” Trent said, cutting Sebastian off. “Orgasms were had by all. Are you happy now?”

“Oooh, orgasms plural?” Sebastian asked wickedly.

Sometimes Trent really wondered why he’d ever decided that being friends with Sebastian Smythe was a good idea. “I am hanging up on you now,” he said, opening the door to Alex’s room so that he could head back out to the kitchen.

“Practice safe sex! Tell Alex I said hi!” Sebastian shouted just before Trent hung up the phone.

“Did he just tell you to practice safe sex?” Alex asked as Trent walked into the room.

Trent sighed and leaned his head against Alex’s shoulder. “If only that were the worst of my problems with him.”

* * *

 

The following Friday, Alex had to stay on campus for several hours after his morning section to grade exams with the other TAs for the course. Grading exams was never fun, but he was especially grumpy this time because it meant that going home and crawling back into bed with Trent was not an option. Even though it had only happened once so far, Alex was still pretty sure that it was already his favorite part of the week. He’d annoyed his fellow TAs by complaining about it multiple times during grading.

Trent had a study group that afternoon, so he was gone by the time Alex got home, but Alex grinned when he realized that there was a note waiting for him on the counter.

“Dear Alex,

                 Did you know you had a landline? Who the hell has a landline? Anyways, it rang this morning, and I was so confused by its existence that I answered it. I don’t think your mother believed my story that I was someone from your cohort who was having roommate issues and needed a place to crash, so good luck with that. I told her that you’d call her back.

                                                                            Talk to you tonight,  
                                                                                       Trent”

Alex had to laugh at how unreasonably Trent the note was. He supposed that now was as good a time as any to Skype his mother.

“Just a second, honey,” she said when she appeared on the screen, then she disappeared and Alex heard her say something to someone in the background. After a minute she returned. “Thanks for that. Freshman freaking out about my grading scheme. You know how hard it is to get rid of them.”

“So it wasn’t one of the ones who thinks you’re their mother this time?” Alex asked. Despite being pretty tough, Julie Donahue had always been the professor that students went to with life problems. Alex had spent a lot of time in her office after school when he was younger, and he’d seen more than one crying break down.

Julie laughed. “No, right now the only person who thinks I’m their mother is you. Speaking of which, Trent sounds cute, but he’s not a very good liar.”

“I don’t know why you don’t believe that someone from my cohort needed to crash on my couch!” Alex said, opening his fridge to see if he could find something for lunch. Julie didn’t respond, but when Alex looked back over at the screen she was giving him an incredulous look. “Fine. He’s a bad liar. That might be a good thing!”

“I’m just saying, the last time we discussed this boy, he was not sleeping at your apartment. So is there something you want to tell me?” Julie asked pointedly.

Alex pulled leftover chicken alfredo out of the fridge and stuck it in the microwave. “It just happened, mom. I promise.”

“Sure it did,” Julie said, looking more than a little doubtful. “So I'm guessing you told him and it went well?”

“Really well, actually,” Alex replied, thinking back to the week before. “Not really the reaction I was expecting. I definitely didn't think he'd be angry or anything, I know he has friends who are trans, but I figured he'd at least want to think about it, if he was even open to it at all.”

“Which is why you waited two months to tell him?” Alex had sort of hoped his mother wouldn't catch that. He'd never waited so long to tell someone. Most of the time he dated people who already knew, and when he didn't he liked to rip the band-aid off before he got invested.

Alex put off answering her for a few minutes while he grabbed his lunch out of the microwave, but he eventually had to give up and tell her. It was hard to stay quiet for long with his mother giving him her “confess your sins” look. “I was in too deep before I even knew what hit me,” Alex said with a shrug, trying to play the statement off. “And, you know, Trent's identified as gay his whole life. It's one thing to have trans friends; it's another to want to be with someone who doesn't have the body you expect.”

Julie gave him a sympathetic look, but she didn't actually say what they were both thinking: if Trent had walked when he found out, it wouldn't have been the first time for Alex.

“Well, it seems like you worked it out,” she said. “So tell me about him! All you said when you drove down to Ohio to visit him over Christmas—he's not an Ohio State fan, is he?—was that it was too soon. Clearly it's not anymore!”

“Of course he's not an Ohio State fan! I can't believe you'd even suggest such a thing!” Alex said with a laugh. Alex's family were very devoted Michigan fans since both of his parents were professors there, and Alex had taken advantage of the free tuition granted to faculty's kids and gone there for his undergrad, so they were very serious about the rivalry between Michigan and Ohio State. “He's a Yale man.”

Julie just raised an eyebrow, so he continued. “He's double majoring in biology and stats because he wants to do genetics.”

“Your father will love that,” Julie said with a laugh.

“I know,” Alex replied. His father was a statistics professor. “He's doing a ton of undergraduate research, and he definitely works too hard, so we have that in common. He's in one of the a cappella groups here.” Alex paused, trying to think of descriptions that would capture Trent better. “He can't cook anything. Like at all. I'm not even sure he can make cereal. He's always putting things in his mouth, which doesn't even seem sanitary—”

“Congratulations!” Julie said, interrupting him with an amused snort.

Alex blinked at her for a second and then said, “Ew! _Mom_! Not like that!”

“I just want you to have a sex life that makes you happy and comfortable, whatever that means for you,” Julie said, and Alex once again thought that having a women's studies professor for a mother was a terrible curse. “But I'm sorry I interrupted you. Keep going.”

“Um, okay ...” Alex had to take a minute to recover his train of thought. “Well, he's really sweet, except he's also totally sarcastic, but it takes a long time to notice that because he looks so innocent. I don't know. He just lights things up.”

Julie gave him a knowing smile, but there was something wistful in her expression. “He makes you light up.”

“He kind of does,” Alex said, blushing and looking down at his keyboard instead of at his mother.

“So when do we get to meet this boy?”

Alex shrugged. “The next time that it's reasonably convenient?” He figured he'd have a while. His parents weren't coming to the east coast any time soon, and spring break was months away.

“I'm holding you to that,” Julie said, giving him her “don't disobey your mother” look.

After that, the conversation moved to complaining about their students and discussing their research.

Once they signed off of Skype nearly an hour later, Alex grabbed his phone and called Trent.

“Hey, sweetie, are you home?” Trent said when he answered the phone.

“My dad has nightmares about not being able to reach me in an emergency because I silence my phone at night, so I got the landline to make him feel better,” Alex explained without preamble.

“Aw, that's adorable,” Trent said with a laugh.

Alex sighed and stood up to start clearing away his dishes. “I'm pretty sure you're the adorable one in this arrangement.”

“Thanks! But I was talking about your dad,” Trent quipped.

Alex rolled his eyes at Trent's ridiculousness, but he couldn't help smiling. He looked down at the backpack he'd dropped by the counter when he came home and thought about all the work he had to do. It did absolutely nothing to stop him from wanting to see Trent as soon as possible. “You should come back here,” he said, without any more hesitation. “If you're free, I mean.”

“I can probably squeeze you in,” Trent said with a giggle. “Want to pick me up?”

“I always want to pick you up,” Alex replied suggestively, and then he realized what Trent was asking. “Oh, you mean in the car? Yeah, sure.”

Trent burst out laughing. Alex ignored him and walked back over to the door to start putting his boots back on.

“Oh my god, my boyfriend is a total dork,” Trent said, but he went quiet a moment later.

Alex paused in the middle of tying his laces. “Oh, I'm your boyfriend, am I?” he asked in a teasing tone.

“Only if you want to be,” Trent replied earnestly. “It's fine if you don't. I didn't mean to push or anything. I just—”

“Trent,” Alex said, cutting him off and grinning down at his shoes. “I really want to be your boyfriend.”

“Well, then I guess you'd better get a move on and not keep me waiting any longer, boyfriend!”

“Be there in a few,” Alex replied.

As soon as Alex hung up the phone, he threw his coat on and practically skipped to his car. He was still grinning ten minutes later when he pulled up to Trent's dorm.

**Author's Note:**

> Sebastian is always concerned about Trent's condom use, clearly. 
> 
> As always, feel free to ask me any questions about the characters/story/etc for MMH on my tumblr iaminarage.


End file.
